[WEB4LIB] The word "listserv" copyrighted?

[Bosman, Don]

A word can not be put under copyright protection. One can try to trademark or trade style a word or phrase, but many of those are rejected by courts or considered to have passed in to the public domain. Escalator for instance. Microsoft is having to defend their claim to "Windows" because they sued to prevent the use of "Lindows". 

Even if listserv had been a registered trademark, it has not been vigorously protected so it would be in the public domain. A quick search on any search engine would turn up more evidence then necessary to defend your argument.

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Nudell [mailto:emnudell at unm.edu]
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 4:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] The word "listserv" copyrighted?


My boss is under the impression that the word "listserv" is copyrighted and
has forbidden us to use it in our documentation. We have invented words like
"e-list" or "electronic list" to refer to a listserv.

I still see the rest of the world using listserv. Has anyone else heard of
"listserv" being copyrighted?


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